Press Association

Newcastle journalism course continues to inspire careers 40 years on

Celebrating its ruby anniversary, the Newcastle journalism foundation course, now run by Press Association Training, has been the starting point for the careers of many of the UK’s leading journalists.

For the past 40 years, the course has offered hands-on, vocational and practical training, exposing journalism trainees to the real world of reporting based in a newspaper office and run by experienced journalists.

The course was founded by Thomson Newspapers in 1969 and was later taken over by Trinity Mirror, before being acquired by the Press Association in 2006.
Among the veterans are James Naughtie (presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme), Andrew Marr (former BBC political editor, currently presents The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday mornings), Sally Magnusson (ex presenter on BBC Two’s The Daily Politics), Nic Gowing (BBC World presenter), Kevin Connolly (BBC Washington correspondent) and Robert Orchard (BBC Radio 4 parliamentary correspondent).

More recently they have been joined by Alistair Leithhead (BBC Asia correspondent), Christian Fraser (BBC overseas news broadcaster), Tom Newton Dunn (Sun defence editor), Jessica Callan (one of the founders of the Daily Mirror’s The3AM Girl) and Colette Hulme (BBC Wales).

A number are editors, they include Lionel Barber of the FT, Donald Martin of the Herald and Evening Times, Glasgow, Brian Aitken of the Journal, Newcastle and Adrian Faber of the Wolverhampton Express and Star. And a handful of trainees including Ken Follet, Nic Evans and most recently, Nick Brownlee, launched themselves into fiction writing. A fair number are also spread to the four corners of the earth working as foreign correspondents but many others are here in the UK.

Today the 17-week full-time foundation course continues to train on core journalism skills through a fully-integrated, multimedia training programme, including video skills and digital publishing. The course is accredited by the NCTJ and based in the offices of Newcastle Chronicle and Journal.

Course Leader, Paul Jones, said: “I would be surprised if there is a national newspaper, radio or TV station that doesn’t have someone in it who has been trained here.

“And of course, the same goes for most regional titles and many other news operations.’’

The centre was the brainchild of one John Gay Davis who became Thomson’s Editorial Director. He set up two operations, one in Cardiff and the surviving Newcastle operation.

Their guiding principle was that the courses should deal in practicalities and that anyone leaving them should be able to walk into a newsroom and make a full contribution.

“That has not changed,” said Paul, “it remains at the heart of everything we do. Nowadays we train in online, video journalism and print but our chief concern is still producing the reporter who can walk in on day one and start work.”

Here are some recent testimonials:

“The training course at Newcastle equipped me with every skill I needed to hit the ground running.” - Rosa Prince is now Political Correspondent with the Daily Telegraph.

“Unlike those on many journalism courses, the teachers come straight from the newsroom.” - Ryan Parry is the Daily Mirror’s US correspondent.

“The teaching at Newcastle is first rate and the hands on experience you get is invaluable.” - Stephanie Busari is a Deputy News Editor with First magazine.

The course runs twice a year, in January and August.

For further details and to sign up, visit our Training section.